Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Cadaver Finesse – Allegedly no recordings (circa 1982)

Aha! And it is mystery band time as we explore the enigma
that is (was?) Cadaver Finesse. There are no videos and there are (allegedly)
no recordings. This might seem at first glance to make this a fairly pointless
entry, but I think it important both for the sake of completeness, and also to
save overly enthusiastic Goth train spotters like myself from wasting their
time searching for that which probably does not exist.

After extensive research (this is blogger’s code for “I Googled it”) I found a most excellent interview conducted in 2007 by Alex Ogg it turns out that Cadaver Finesse was
in fact something of a spin off from fanzine Panache, itself an early project
of one Mick Mercer Esq. who would later rise to a fame of sorts as Gothic Rock’s
prime, and for many years, only, serious journalist.

They kicked off in 1977 under the charmingly subtle and
suave moniker of Spermatic Chords. By 1981, we find the Chords supporting bands
like The Cravats and The Dancing Did. These are both bands that when one reads “Gothic Rock” (Mercer, Pegasus, 1991) one
can’t help but gain the impression as being bands the Mighty Mick was quite
dreadfully fond of. Indeed, Cherry Red’s advert for their re-release of Dancing
Did’s And Did Those Feet (2007) cites Mick as naming the Dancing Did as his
favourite English band of all time.

The name changes in 1982 to Cadaver Finesse, which
reportedly had a quite unusual instrumentation as noted by Mick in his
interview with Alex Ogg:

MICK: “We added a second drummer, Paul. Eric was
left-handed, Paul right. Together they’d create a drum sound unlike that which
you’d normally hear, like a monstrously, impossibly dextrous single drummer
playing the same thing, apart from the floor toms. It was weird post-punk
stuff, but people seemed to like its adventurous spirit even though it was
slightly shambolic, and all went well with more gigs, until people started
bickering. I couldn’t stand the aimless approach and it fell apart, which was a
shame as Neil was shaping up to be quite an inventive guitarist and the
rhythmical approach was exciting.”

Mick gets coy at this point when Alex asks;

“Any chance of hearing
any MP3s of this stuff, Mick?”

And Mick replies:

“ Spermatic Chords or
Cadaver Finesse MP3s? When I say ‘not in this lifetime’, that’s the optimistic
version.”

This should be an end to it, but for my recent Face Book
discussion with Mick Mercer:

James Von Sutekh
Will there be a photo book of Cadaver Finesse?

30 January at 04:27

Mick Mercer No,
there will not!

30 January at 04:28

James Von Sutekh
Ohhh. *petulantly kicks the gravel*

An MP3 download then?

30 January at 04:32

James Von Sutekh
I honestly, totally, cross my heart, not to upload and review...

*crosses fingers
behind his back*

30 January at 04:48

Mick Mercer There
aren't any. (*phew!)

30 January at 05:47

And so, nothing remains. On the lone and level, sands
stretch far away.

Not that that stopped the wily old bugger from immortalising them in his first book.

The original 1988 edition (Ominbus Press). More recent re-releases

bear alternate cover art and many additional photos.

But wait!

There are snippets
floating around. There is apparently an interview in Mick’s Punk Interviews
Volume 2 (Mercer, Self Published, 2009). This seems to have been exhumed from
an issue of Panache and conducted by someone called Kim (presumably Panache contributor Kim Igoe of punk outfit Action
Pact) and there may even be photos. I really must get hold of Mick’s various
books of compiled interviews – I daresay they’d make for very interesting
reading.

A final tantalising morsel lies in a throwaway line by Mick
to Alex Ogg;

“I know where the
tapes are buried.”

Is he joking? It’s difficult to believe that some of the
band wouldn’t have rehearsal tapes or demos squirreled away somewhere, and
given the nature of the internet, it’s equally difficult to believe that this
material won’t surface sooner or later.

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A Welcome and Introduction

Plunder the Tombs was started back in 2010 by way of looking back on a musical past that I felt in sore need of curation.

It was a strange and sad time when what passed for “Goth” in clubs seemed a pale imitator of what once was, following first a decade of cookie-cutter Sisters of the Nephilim clone bands and then another decade of industrial dance being palmed off to younger audiences as a type of faux goth. When on rare occasion DJs in “Goth” clubs did finally become brave enough to play something like Bauhaus it was not untypical to have the dance floor clear, and it became obvious that the memory, meaning and legacy of much that had gone before had been lost.

It’s probably safe to say that the boundaries of what was “Goth” were never clearly defined. An absolute blessing for those bands on the original scene before it had a name pinned to the donkey, but an outright curse for those who came later and found rules had been imposed to dictate that which was and that which was not acceptable. Worse still was to come in the 90s from a lazy and unquestioning media who simply assumed that anything that wore black and make up was by definition “Goth”, thus allowing all manner of pretenders licence, and maximising confusion as to what the term actually referred to.

This has gone on for way too long and its time is at an end. Neo Post-Punk bands now proliferate across Europe, old long dead Goth bands rise from their crypts in the UK, and new deathrock bands are breeding like rabbits up the west coast of America. It is time to reclaim our scene back from metal bands and ravers in disguise.

While the Plunder the Tombs of old focused on what had gone before, there are now far too many exciting new things to ignore. We roar back to life in a reboot, covering past , present and things yet to come.

Let us plunder the tombs….

About Me

A DJ throughout the 90s at numerous Goth night clubs in Perth including The Cell, Dominion and others he was probably far too drunk to remember, largely as a result of his preference to work for bar tabs over cash. Also helped found 6RTR fm's Goth & Industrial showcase Darkwings.
More recent projects include the currently dormant Descent - a small night dedicated to playing genuinely good Goth music both old and new in preference to packing the dance floor with songs everyone had heard 20 million times before. He currently runs a monthly show on Behind the Mirror on 6RTR fm which can be heard on Wednesdays at 11pm WST.
Rumour has it he once masterminded an ill-advised Goth fanzine "Small Pleasures" that in retrospect, he remains profoundly grateful never made it off his desk.